Founding of Malacca Malacca was established when
Parameswara, who had escaped from
Palembang in Sumatra, decided to build a new kingdom following Malay
Srivijaya's fall in 1377 after being attacked by Javanese
Majapahit. Before he reached the site, he arrived in
Temasek, which he decided to make the centre of the new Malay Kingdom's administration. But when Parameswara lived there, he killed Temagi, a
Regent of Singapura who served under the
Siamese King to take over the throne from Temagi. Fearing further reprisals by Siam when the news reached the
Siamese Kingdom, Parameswara decided to move to a new place. After he left Temasek, it was attacked by Majapahit. Parameswara continue his journey to the north, where he reportedly visited Sening Ujong (now
Sungai Ujong) before arriving at a Malay fishing village at the mouth of Bertam River (now
Malacca River). He decided to stop there to rest. While he was resting under a tree, he saw his follower's hunting dogs fighting with a small mouse deer before they were kicked into a river by the deer. Soon, the site became the centre of the
Malay world in the 15th and 16th centuries and the most prosperous
entrepôt in the Malay Archipelago. In 1403, the first official Chinese trade envoy led by Admiral Yin Qing arrived in Malacca. Later, Parameśwara was escorted by
Zheng He and other envoys in his successful visits. Malacca's relationships with
Ming granted protection to Malacca against attacks from
Siam and
Majapahit and Malacca officially submitted as a
protectorate of
Ming China. This encouraged the development of Malacca into a major trade settlement on the trade route between China and
India,
Middle East,
Africa and
Europe. To prevent the Malaccan empire from falling to the Siamese and Majapahit, he forged a relationship with the
Ming dynasty of China for protection. On his descriptions, he wrote; monument today (seen from the backside), marking his stopover at the city In 1405, the Ming court dispatched Admiral
Zheng He with a stone tablet enfeoffing the Western Mountain of Malacca as well as an imperial order elevating the status of the port to a country. Due to Chinese involvement, Malacca had grown as key alternative to other important and established ports. With the rise of Melaka as an empire, both the Majapahit and Siamese kingdoms were unable to conquer it, especially with the Chinese protection. During this time, a HinduMalay and TamilMalay society were also formed. The Sultan died in 1414 and was succeeded by his son,
Megat Iskandar Shah. Malacca continued to prosper until the eighth Sultanate of Malacca,
Mahmud Shah, with the various races who came to trade becoming associated with particular trade specialties; the Gujaratis, Tamils, and Bengalis were mostly
cloth merchants, the Arabs and Persians waited for their vessels to be filled with goods from China, the Chinese dealt mainly in silk,
camphor, and
porcelain, and the natives of Malay Archipelago, like the
Bugis and other island peoples, traded mainly in spices and
sandalwood, and the
Minangkabau in
pepper and gold, with the Javanese controlling the rice and imported foodstuffs. The Portuguese, under King
Manuel I, sent a representative named
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to establish contact with the Sultanate. At first, Sequeira was well received by Sultan
Mahmud Shah. But the Tamil Muslim community, who already had an established presence in Malacca, convinced the Sultan to eliminate the Portuguese based on
their treatment of the Muslims of
Goa. Reacting to the report, Sultan Mahmud then ordered several men from the Portuguese delegation to be captured and killed, but some of them managed to escape with their ships. His intention was described in his own words when he arrived to Malacca: The Portuguese launched their first attack on 25 July 1511, but this was met with failure. Albuquerque then launched another attack on 15 August 1511, which proved successful as
Malacca was captured on that day. In retaliation for Portugal's activity in Malacca, several Portuguese were later killed by the Chinese in the battles of
Tunmen and
Xicaowan in China. Aceh's ambition for domination later led to a clash with the Portuguese in Malacca. The two sultanates and the Portuguese became involved in a triangular war, but when both the Portuguese and the Johor saw Aceh as a threat due to its constant attacks against them, the two began to collaborate to fight Aceh. In 1582 the Portuguese assisted Johor to thwart an attack by Aceh, but the arrangement ended when Johor attacked the Portuguese in 1587. Aceh continued its attacks against the Portuguese, and was later destroyed when a large additional armada from the Portuguese port of Goa came to defend Malacca and destroy the sultanate. This led the Dutch to seize the Bugis areas of
Riau and expel the Bugis from both Riau and
Selangor, for fearing that these areas would otherwise have fallen under British rule. Malacca was placed under the direct control of
Batavia in Java. A
treaty was later signed in 1824 between the British and Dutch to prevent further British influence in Java; one result was that the Johor-Riau Empire fell under two colonial powers along with Malacca, which was then officially handed to the British in 1825 and integrated as part of the
Straits Settlements.
World War II, post-independence and present During the first stage of
World War II, the city's residents continued to live normally until the news of the
Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse on 10 December 1941 reached the city and struck panic. British colonial officials began to flee and thousands of the city's residents hid in rubber estates and jungles since they heard about the acts of cruelty committed in other parts of Malaya following their conquest by the Japanese. but as they mainly focused on ensuring the retreat of the British to the south of the Malay Peninsula and
Singapore, there was no major battle in the city or other parts of Malacca. When the
Allies began to counter-attack against the Japanese, the Japanese officially surrendered to the Allies in August 1945 with the city left undamaged as there were no heavy battles, and it was administered as part of the
British Military Administration until the formation of the
Malayan Union and then the
Federation of Malaya. After Malaya achieved
its independence on 31 August 1957, a colonial building named "Malacca Club" was built by the British in the city as the social centre for
Britons in
British Malaya. The building was then turned into
a memorial after 38 years to commemorate the Malayan independence day. After the Federation of Malaya, together with
North Borneo,
Sarawak and Singapore formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, Malacca Town was extensively developed, although many of the historical architectures inherited from its colonial days remain untouched. On 15 April 1989, Malacca Town was bestowed the "Historical City" title and on the same date in 2003 it was granted
city status. On 7 July 2008, Malacca City was listed as one of the historical cities in Malaysia, together with
George Town in the northern Malay Peninsula. ==Governance and politics==